I pride myself on running adventures in game stores and bars for my local rpg meetup group. I have probably run over 100 different sessions for the meetup and usually with strangers. I have never had as much fun running a game for strangers as I did Blood in the Chocolate. My players were laughing and crying with horror, I played up the Wily Wonka creepiness and wtf factor of the module and I have never had so much fun with a group. What Mr Chenier has done is create one of the funniest, strangest, and most outrageous adventures I have ever come across. Other reviews have focused on the content of the adventure so I will not retell it. But I want to focus on a few critiques I have read about the adventure
First off anyone complaining about the Pygmies must have not read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The book has the Oompa Loompas as nothing more then thinly veiled racist caricatures of aborigines or Africans. Mr Chenier has obviously not only read the novel but incorporated the original Oompa Loompas for his adventure but is doing it all in good fun and jest. He shows a great love and respect for not only the book but the wonderful 1970’s movie. Since this a LOTFP product it is not offensive as it is tongue in cheek, anyone offended by this really didn't understand what they were buying. And as a personal note, Political Correctness has no place at a game table. If we as Game Masters are afraid to run games for fear of offending people we are doing nothing but censoring ourselves and I game to push boundaries and challenge people not to just kill kobolds and orcs.
Anyone looking for treasure or a traditional dungeon crawl style game in a LOTFP adventure needs to reassess their priorities, James Raggi chooses adventures that provoke strong and visceral emotions in gamers but also subverts most standard D&D style tropes and Blood in the Chocolate does this in a spectacular fashion. This is also one of the better organized adventures I have come across, layout, usability at the table and ease of use are all spectacular and more designers could learn from his style. I read the adventure once before I ran it with little prep and was very satified at how easy it was run.
And the Villain is just plain awesome I feel people who don't like her simply couldn't roleplay her well and need box text to be able to get across her subtleties. Sometimes there are just evil people who you want to take out in a game and do not need a reason or tortured back story to explain it. My players played the adventure ran into her right at the end in her Master bedroom and escaped to a different LOTFP setting that I won't spoil here.
If you like LOTFP, grindhouse horror, satire, Willy Wonka and can realize that this adventure is trying to not only be funny and memorable but also subversive you will end up having one of the best adventures you can buy today. I for one will buy anything Mr. Chenier publishes in the future. This is a new classic that I will be running for years and can't wait to GM again. My only complaint is that I didn’t get to experience it as a player. I have never laughed as hard running this game and it has created memories I'll cherish for years.